When President Mark D. Gearan signed the American College and University Presidents Climate Commitment, he formed The President’s Climate Commitment Task Force to oversee the planning and implementation of all green initiatives and projects that range from a more eco-friendly way of commuting around campus to finding creative ways of reducing the campus’ carbon footprint.
The Task Force is co-chaired by Professor of Economics and Environmental Studies Tom Drennen and Vice President of Finance Pete Polinak. Commonly known as “Captain Carbon,” Drennen is an expert and an activist for a greener way of living and studying at the Colleges. Drennen is also a central member of Sandia National Laboratories as its senior economist. Bringing nearly 30 years of financial experience to the Colleges, Polinak joined the HWS staff in 2003 and has served as the Colleges' chief financial officer, responsible for budget development and controls, Buildings & Grounds, business operations, financial planning and overseeing the endowment.
Offering keen student insight, seniors Clancy Brown and Mike Thompson join Polinak and Drennen on the Task Force. Brown, a William Smith senior, is the chair of Campus Greens, the HWS student environmental organization, and interned at Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory in Gothic, Colo. as a part of a Research Experience for Undergraduates funded by the National Science Foundation. Thompson, a Hobart junior, is a student athlete and activist. His recent carbon inventory of the Colleges’ carbon emissions updated the founding inventory done by Brown.
In addition to Gearan, Drennen, Polinak, Brown and Thompson, the Task Force also includes Associate Professor of Geoscience Tara Curtin, Mark Vogelgesang '08, Director of Communications Cathy Williams, Chief of Staff Lauren Shallish '05, Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Robert Flowers and Director of Buildings and Grounds Howard Simmons.
The Green Team
On the recommendation of two William Smith student experts on recycling and the environment – seniors Christine Moskell and Molly Chudleigh – Professor of Economics and Environmental Science Tom Drennen brought together the Green Team. The team is a group of driven students with their sights set on a greener campus. Erinn Cudd '09, Prabi Basnet '09, Paul Golob '11 and Courtney Peters '08 continue to be crucial in a number of recent environmentally driven initiatives, including RecycleMania, Get Caught Green Handed and Pitch In, One Bin.
Campus Greens
Campus Greens is a student-run organization that seeks to encourage individual and institutional responsibility for the environment awareness and activism by first, informing and increasing environmental literacy and encouraging the campus community to act in different forms on many environmental issues. Putting its eco-friendly goals into action, the Campus Greens have initiated an ink cartridge recycling program in the computer centers as well as organized and sent many petitions and hundreds of letters related to environmental issues to senators and other governmental officials.